The Pheonix
by Backseat Mistress
Summary: She was named for the moon. Born pure and white and shining, but there comes a time when the moon runs red. Stained, tainted, and changed. She would do the same.


**The Shaman Fight is a battle held once every 500 years between competing shamans to choose a winner who will become the highly sought-after "Shaman King", one who is able to contact the Great Spirit (the spirit that every soul will eventually go back to). The winner gains the ability to reshape the world in any way they want.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King.

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Prologue

I think I always knew I was different. From the time I was born I was able to see people that others couldn't. Spirits, I would later learn to call them. At first I treated them like I would any living person and I talked back to them when they asked questions, but soon I found that others around me would give me strange looks. It made me feel uneasy. So I began to ignore them or most of them anyway.

"What's with the long face?" A voice asked. It seemed to have been pulled from thin air for the only person in the room hadn't spoken.

"We're moving." The little girl lying on the bed answered. She sighed and then pulled herself up to face the empty room. Then a figure appeared. An elderly woman with no feet, only her upper mass floating in the air. You could even see the wall behind her.

"Well, that is news, isn't it?" The woman spoke.

"Please, Nana, don't make a joke about this." The girl frowned. And after her so did the elderly lady. The woman moved over to the girl and placed her hand on her head. The girl only felt a soft chill, no pressure, but the gesture was kind enough. It made the girl smile.

The atmosphere was getting better, but it wouldn't stay that way.

"Yue?" A voice beyond the room's door called. The girl gave a panicked look to the elderly lady, but the woman only smiled back at her. The door opened and another woman entered the room.

This woman wasn't old and she wasn't transparent. Her silver hair was long and full. Her skin was milky in hue. Her eyes were violet, but quickly went dark as they fell upon the figure floating beside her daughter.

"Nana?" The woman's voice was calm, but had a bite to it as she said the name.

"Kyoko. It's nice to see you." Nana responded.

"Wish I could say the same." Kyoko turned toward her daughter then. "Yue, I've told you to stop talking to these spirit."

"But Nana's not just another spirit. She's your guardian spirit." Yue replied, giving Nana a soft smile.

"Yue is right, Kyoko. I've been very careful around here and made sure to stay out of sight from that man you married." Nana added.

"I'm not having this conversation again. Yue finish packing your bag, we're filling up the car tonight so we can leave first thing in the morning." Kyoko gave her daughter a look to make sure Yue knew she meant business. When Yue nodded Kyoko turned to leave, but stopped short. Turning to face Nana she spoke unwavering. "You will not be coming to our new home. Understand? I meant it when I said I was finished with spirits."

Nana frowned, but replied that she understood. Then she and Yue watched Kyoko leave. The atmosphere had turned depressing. Yue turned to Nana and gave a weak smile.

"I'm sorry." Yue told her.

Nana nodded. "I know."

The next morning came slowly. Yue had drifted in and out of sleep many times during the night. Her stomach was turning and her head was pounding. The move and leaving behind her friend was sweeping her over with dark visions.

There came a knock and her door opened, revealing her father. He was a strapping man with black hair and eyes tinted with red. It was no wonder why her mother had fallen so hard for him. His looks were as sharp as his attitude, but he held a soft spot in his heart for his daughter.

"Yue, it's time to leave. Get dressed and meet your mother and I in the family room." His smooth voice carried to her and she sat up in her bed to show that she heard him. He smiled. "Come on then."

Yue got out of bed slowly. When she'd finally gotten her eyes to fully focus she grabbed the clothes off the end of her bed and changed.

"Nana?" She called, but there was no answer. "Nana?" She called again, but still no reply. She felt her eyes begin to tear up, but the sound of her father's voice calling for her shifted her thoughts in enough time to prevent tears. Yue walked to her door like a girl going to be punished. When she grabbed the handle and stepped out she made a point to turn around and take one last look. Her small room was empty; except for the twin bed she'd leave behind. There was nothing left and no one to bid her goodbye. Her mother's voice called for her then, asking her to hurry. Yue looked in the direction of the voice and shut her door.

Inside the empty room was silent until a figure slowly came into view. Nana set on the bed and looked at the door Yue had only just closed. She knew it would've been too hard to say goodbye, for both of them. So she figured it best to say nothing at all. But now, as she looked at the empty bed, she couldn't help other than to feel heart broken. Reaching down to touch to place where Yue had slept, Nana cried.

Yue had been in the car for only a few minutes when she felt a sharp pain in her side. She saw her mother flinch and knew that she'd felt it too. Her father noticed it as well.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing," her mother replied, "the seat belt just pinched me is all."

Her father looked in the rear-view mirror at Yue. "You okay back there?"

Yue looked in the mirror at her oblivious father and then caught the eyes of her mother staring at her. She forced a smile and nodded, but when her parents put their attention back on the road Yue placed her head against the window and sobbed with her friend.


End file.
